"Clique": kleek? klick?

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Click."  I have spoken.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: "Clique": kleek? klick?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I learned "clique" through reading and assumed that it was pronounced
"kleek." When I got to high school,
I found "clique" to be in common use among black high-school kids with the
pronunciation, "klick." The
term was not used at the so-called "white" - 793 European-Americans, seven
African-Americans - high school that
I attended. Lacking any other evidence, I assumed that "klick" was the BE
pronunciation and that my white
schoolmates, had they any occasion to use the word, would say "kleek."

However, the fact of the matter is that I've never heard "clique" pronounce=
d
other than as "klick" by any
American of any race, creed, color, or social status anywhere, under any se=
t
of circumstances. Admittedly,
"clique" is not a word of everyday utility, but, over a span of a
half-century or so, I would expect to have heard
"kleek" at least once. A minute ago, just for the hell of it, I asked my
wife to pronounce "o-b-l-i-q-u-e." Her
response: "obleek." Then I asked her to pronounce "c-l-i-q-u-e." Her
response: "klick."

OED2 gives "kleek" as the sole pronunciation and RHD and WNW give "kleek" a=
s
the preferred pronunciation.
So, what's up? How say ye?
--
-Wilson Gray




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